4 Reasons for a Revocable Living Trust

A person who sets up a Revocable Trust reserves the right to revoke, amend, terminate, or change the Trust after it becomes effective. A Revocable Living Trust (also known as an “RLT”) is not for everyone but there are 4 situations where you would want to seriously consider setting up an RLT.

1. Privacy

If you have a Will when you die, the Will goes through the probate process and is made public. So when you pass away and your Will is filed, anyone can go to the court house and read the Will to see exactly what your Will stated and who gets your assets. However, with a revocable living trust, your assets and your beneficiaries remain completely private.

2. Owning Real Property Outside of Texas

Without a revocable living trust, when you die your loved ones will have to go through the probate process in every state that you owned property. Putting real property that is outside the state of Texas into a RLT ensures that your loved ones will save time and money not having to go through probate in other states.

When you transfer some or all of your property to an RTL, you still retain all the perks of ownership to that property. You can sell it; give it away, change the beneficiaries of that property upon your death, as well as determine how the property will be managed and invested while it's in the Trust. You really don't give up any rights to your property when you transfer it to a revocable living trust. You are still treated as the owner of the property for tax purposes.

3. Management of Multiple Accounts

An RLT can be used for ease of management of multiple accounts. If you do have multiple accounts, you can put all those accounts into a revocable living trust in order to manage them in one general location.

4. Perfect Assets Protection for Beneficiaries

Another benefit for setting up an RTL is that the creators of the trust can amend or terminate it at any time, but upon the death of one or both of the creators of the trust, the trust can then become irrevocable. An irrevocable trust cannot be terminated or amended by the beneficiaries. This gives the beneficiaries what we call “perfect asset protection.”

It’s important to speak with a qualified estate planning attorney when considering different types of trusts. Meet with one of our Dallas Attorneys to discuss whether a RLT is right for your situation.